But I will say, as a preliminary answer, that the feeling assumes an ideal of knowing which I
believe to be quite mistaken.
"I don't see why one should
believe in God at all."
"I do not
believe there is a God," howled Caderousse; "you do not
believe it; you lie -- you lie!"
for I do not as yet understand whether you affirm that I teach other men to acknowledge some gods, and therefore that I do
believe in gods, and am not an entire atheist--this you do not lay to my charge,--but only you say that they are not the same gods which the city recognizes--the charge is that they are different gods.
To receive that science it is necessary to purify and renew one's inner self, and so before one can know, it is necessary to
believe and to perfect one's self.
I cannot
believe that you are ignorant of the salient points concerning Duson's death."
"I shall never
believe anything," she declared, "which I do not choose to
believe.
'No, Lawrence, with your leave we'll continue it a while longer; and I'll tell you something, now we're about it, which you may
believe or not as you choose - only please to remember that it is not my custom to speak falsely, and that in this case I can have no motive for misrepresenting the truth - '
If Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus had been unarmed they could not have enforced their constitutions for long--as happened in our time to Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who was ruined with his new order of things immediately the multitude believed in him no longer, and he had no means of keeping steadfast those who believed or of making the unbelievers to
believe. Therefore such as these have great difficulties in consummating their enterprise, for all their dangers are in the ascent, yet with ability they will overcome them; but when these are overcome, and those who envied them their success are exterminated, they will begin to be respected, and they will continue afterwards powerful, secure, honoured, and happy.
It will be much more convenient to discuss this question in the chapter on the Imperfection of the geological record; and I will here only state that I
believe the answer mainly lies in the record being incomparably less perfect than is generally supposed; the imperfection of the record being chiefly due to organic beings not inhabiting profound depths of the sea, and to their remains being embedded and preserved to a future age only in masses of sediment sufficiently thick and extensive to withstand an enormous amount of future degradation; and such fossiliferous masses can be accumulated only where much sediment is deposited on the shallow bed of the sea, whilst it slowly subsides.
I love you too much to live with you for the rest of my life wondering all the time whether you still believed or whether the weight of the evidence had crushed out that tiny little spark of intuition which is all that makes you
believe me now.
Elizabeth coloured and laughed as she replied, "Yes, you know enough of my frankness to
believe me capable of that.
